Never seen anything like this? At least one coach has

Mark Smith never knew exactly where to put Johnny Manziel. So the then-Tivy High football coach played him everywhere — receiver, defensive back, kick returner, quarterback, running back, punter.

This was before Manziel became a full-fledged quarterback, before he decommitted from Oregon and signed with Texas A&M, before he burst onto the scene as college football's brand-new obsession, before he stunned the top-ranked team in the land.

And, oh, before he picked up that nickname.

Just a few years ago, the guy they now call "Johnny Football" was an athletic sophomore at a high school in central Texas trying to find a spot that best suited him.

He found it midway through that season when the starting quarterback was suspended.

"He took the job over and he held onto it. From then on," Smith said, "it's what you see on TV right now."

Oh. That guy. The one who has surged into the Heisman Trophy chatter while leading the Aggies (9-2, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) into the top 10, sweeping the nation with his snazzy play-making. He and the Aggies have a date today with Missouri (5-6, 2-5), a game in which this redshirt freshman can cap an unexpected regular season with another stat-building performance.

His numbers: 3,047 passing yards, 21 TDs to seven interceptions, 1,114 rushing yards and 17 rushing scores. He's ranked second in the NCAA in total offense.

Manziel has gone from an unknown guy who was arrested over the summer to one who jumped onto the scene with a nationally televised college debut against Florida.

It only got better form there. There was the six-touchdown day against SMU, the nearly 600-yard game against Louisiana Tech and — who can forget? — the wild win at then-No. 1 Alabama.

"The things he does are pretty crazy," said A&M linebacker Jonathan Stewart, who spends practice chasing the speedy 200-pounder. "He's very explosive."

You don't have to tell Smith, now the coach at Judson High, near San Antonio. He's seen all this before.

"I believed, at some point, the things people are seeing now," he said, "were going to happen."

Smith became aware of Manziel when he was in eighth grade. He played on the Tivy High freshman team because that's what freshmen did under Smith. But it became clear that he belonged on varsity. Manziel joined the veterans as a receiver for Tivy's playoff run.

"We knew we had something," Smith said.

So, yeah, this started early.

There were road blocks before he got to this point, being the favorite for the game's biggest prize. He redshirted last year, watching from the sideline as A&M's late-season slide cost Coach Mike Sherman a job. In July, he was arrested after police said he was involved in a fight.

Manziel hasn't talked to reporters in months. New Coach Kevin Sumlin doesn't allow freshmen to do interviews. So what kind of guy is Manziel?

Stewart, the A&M linebacker, called him a "cool cat" who's humble. Smith said he's "a great leader, a guy that expects a lot of himself and he expects a lot out of everybody else."